Question: I find that our Amazon listing prices must be at the bottom end of the price scale, or our books don't sell. We upload to Amazon via HomeBase and also sell on ABE, Alibris, and Biblio. Can you clarify a decent pricing strategy for Amazon that will get us to the $10 to $15 price range?

ANSWER: You are right, selling commonly available used books promptly on Amazon Marketplace does depend on being "visible" in the listings. So that usually means having a price low enough to be one of the three lowest-priced listings displayed when the buyer clicks on "new and used."

For scarcer books, I recommend pricing in the higher range of available listings on Amazon Marketplace. I'm referring to uncommon books that you know (from researching comparable listings on AddAll.com, for example) are worth over $40. In that case, I recommend waiting out the lower-priced competition on Marketplace.

Customers who are shopping in this upper price range pay lots more attention to the information in the listing, such as book condition, shipping options, and of course the seller's feedback and apparent care in writing the description. So in that case you're competing more on service and reputation than just price. Lowball sellers on Amazon are not particularly successful with higher-priced books.

Unfortunately, for more common books which make up the vast majority of your unit sales, you are forced to be more competitive on price simply because the buyers are more uninformed and careless. While buyers of the high-end books seem to scroll through every listing and put some thought into their choice, buyers of the low-end books seem to make a snap decision -- they don't consider much of anything except price. I'm continually mystified by these buyers who will buy from a dealer with horrible feedback just because the book is priced a penny less! After all, why would you spend your hard-earned money with a seller who has only 80 percent positive feedback? Common sense tells you it's a gamble, and there's a 20 percent chance you'll be unhappy with the transaction.

I've been able to raise my average sale price over time by concentrating more on acquiring unique, specialized books. For me, this means esoteric nonfiction, for sellers with more expertise in fiction collectibles, it could mean first editions of great literature. Over the years I've gotten a lot better at finding great books and having the confidence to pay for them. When I started out I wouldn't spend more than $2 on any book.

See a real-time list of the most highly sought after used and collectible books.

Read more free articles on selling used books profitably online: http://www.weberbooks.com/selling/selling.htm

Steve Weber is author of "The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site" (ISBN 0977240606). Got a question for Steve? Send to: steve_weber@yahoo.com